24K Butterball

Attic Gal Rachelle says:

I love decorating for Fall! And the first day of November, my witch lair comes down, and the fall decor goes up. My style is glitz and gold! The more sparkle and gold the better.

Here is one little trick picked up from Martha Stewart, that is so quick, and cheap, and gives me just the look I'm after.

I found this beautiful, colorful bird at a garage sale last month for a buck. Cute, but... not exactly the style I am after. But the bird has good lines so...

I spray painted her in a luscious, brilliant gold paint. I love that the Midas touch now comes in a convenient can!

Over the last year or so I have found several turkeys that I have transformed with the one can of paint, and some gourds, dried corn, nuts, and wheat as well (not all of them, but a few here and there for pizazz. Once you start spray-painting, your trigger finger gets a bit crazy and you start imagining what everything would look like sprayed gold.)

May you Thanksgiving be GOLDEN!

A Pocketful of Posies!

On Wednesday I threw a mother/daughter dinner for the young women from  our church in my backyard.  It was really a great evening, and the theme was flowers.

For a craft we made pretty fabric posies with a huge pile of different fabrics and a two gallon tub of old buttons that I am proud to own.  I just love old buttons!  My kids will dig through that tub for hours finding their favorites.  

We simply ran the fabric through my Big Shot die cut machine, with a few of my Bigz flower dies, then they sewed them together with the button using a needle and thread.  They got to choose between putting their flower on a hair clip or a pin back.  The girls made flowers for their moms and vice-versa.

Here are a few of their creations:

They are super cute in the hair, but you can pin them on a hat, purse, or jacket.

I put my toile posie on the fun polka dot bag my mom gave me for mother's day, and included the red ribbon the gift came wrapped in.  Love it!

Everybody's flowers turned out darling!  And after they all left, I just couldn't put all the fabric and buttons away without making a pocketful of posies of my own:

Which are your favorites?

I love the yellow and blue toile of course, and the yellow striped one is just sweet.

Black and white is always a great combo.

Hee Haw!  The denim  ones are just fun!

The orange one is one of my favorites.  I really like the monochromatic flowers!

Show a little posie patriotism for the 4th.

The pink and brown one on the bottom just makes me happy, and the bright pink with pinstripes and bling is very classy, don't you think?

But the natural muslin one on the bottom is my favorite I think, and the brown velvet one above it is simply luscious!   I am going to have so much fun with these.

Try making some posies of your own with some scraps of fabric.  I liked the heavier weight, textured fabrics best.  If you don't have a die cut machine, you can always trace a pattern and cut them out, or even freehand cut them.  I really don't think you can go wrong.  Just have fun with it!

Sakura

Attic Gal Alysa says:

Cherry Blossoms outside of the National Cathedral

(Picture compliments of my dear friend, Doreen Wallace)

As I've been teaching my 4th grade Japanese class this month, we've been discussing Sakura -- Cherry Blossoms. If you have ever been to Washington DC during this time of the year, you've hopefully experienced the National Cherry Blossom Festival. It is a two-week festival that celebrates springtime. Back in 1912, Japan presented Washington DC with more than 3,000 Cherry Blossom trees representing the two countries' friendship. Check out thewashingtonpost.com for some amazing pictures.

I was visiting Attic Gal Rachelle the other night and saw that she made a faux-cherry blossom tree. Since I'm homesick for DC and we don't have many cherry blossoms in the desert, it was the perfect craft to make my homesickness go away. I had to do one for myself. Easy peasy craft -- I love those.

1. Find a branch. I found this on the ground while I was out running.

2. Have dark pink tissue paper and light pink tissue paper. Cut a messy circular shape. Make the smaller ones with the dark pink and the large shapes with the light pink.

3. Wrap the dark pink smaller shape around the eraser part of a pencil. Attic Girl Rachelle used the point of her pencil. Either way. (Sorry for the fuzzy picture. It's hard to take your own pictures when you are the crafter.)


4. Wrap it around the end of the pencil. (Ahh, much clearer. My daughter helped.)


5. Put a drop of elmer's glue on top.



6. Put the large light pink shape on top of the glue.


7. Wrap this one of the pencil and on top of the dark pink.


8. Add another drop of elmer's glue.

9. Place the blossom somewhere on the branch.

10. Let it sit there for a bit to dry.

You can add a few blossoms like I did,

or add a lot of blossoms like Rachelle did. Fun craft to do even with children.

Enjoy bringing a little Japan and a little DC into your home.

Transformation

Attic Gal Alysa says:

Don't you love transforming things especially when it is easy? While I was busy having my garage sale, Rachelle hit the garage sale trail and found me this bird to go with my new birdie shower curtain. Wasn't exactly my taste but we saw beyond the exterior to the inner beautiful bird that wanted to emerge. "Set me free of my ugliness, tweet, tweet!"




I grabbed a can of spray paint that I already had in my garage and transformed the little birdie.
I took a few minutes from my garage sale to paint it, let it dry, went back and did another coat while the sale was slow, let it dry and then finished with one more coat. Spray paint is my new best friend. What can you transform with a can of spray and five minutes of your busy life? Let us know.